At my church, every Sunday morning we follow a set liturgy or order of service--the prayers, songs and Scripture readings change, but the structure of the service is always the same. Early in the service, there's a time of confession where the congregation reads a prayer aloud, and then prays in silence for 45 seconds. Following this we sing the "Agnus Dei," a traditional liturgical text originally used in the Catholic Mass: "Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, have mercy on us / Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, have mercy on us / Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, grant us peace." The Agnus Dei that we sing every week was composed by a member of the church, David Hlebo, who is a composer and musician who plays sax and flute on the church's worship team. The Agnus Dei that he wrote is amazing. It's very simple, and probably most lay people would think it adequate but unremarkable; but from a compositional standpoint, it comes close to technical perfection, and it works really well at the point in the service when it's used.
After becoming a member of the church myself, I thought it would be fun to try to compose another Agnus Dei that could alternate with Hlebo's version. (I suggested this to the pastor, and he was all for the idea, since he said "We've sung the same song every week for the past seven years"). It took me a long time to come up with a good idea, because Hlebo's version was so ingrained in my head and so good--most of my early thoughts were far too similar to his. But eventually I came up with a melody and chord progression I was happy with.
My Agnus Dei is in 6/8 time, in C minor. Since the piece is for congregational singing, I wanted it to be a simple, almost folk-like melody that would be easy to catch onto quickly; and since it's intended for use in the confessional part of the service, I wanted it to be solemn and reverent without being too slow or boring. I wrote along with the melody a suggested piano accompaniment; it's not too exciting, but it has some cool moments and it helps to give the piece some movement and energy. At the moment I don't have the ability to record the piano part, but in the future I will, and I'll let you know when that happens. In the meantime, you can head over to the Agnus Dei page on my website to listen to a scratch recording with guitar. Leave a comment here and let me know what you think!
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